Page 99 of Before This Ends (Before)

“I didn’t do it.”

“You didn’t kill Anna or Grace?” Tucker asks softly and Kelly shakes his head franticly.

“Cristy found out I was seeing Anna.”

“Then what happened?”

“I love my wife,” he mutters, leaning forward and dropping his face into his hands. “I thought…. I didn’t know what she had planned.” He lifts his head, his face pale. “I’m gonna be sick.”

“Hand me the garbage can,” Tucker orders, and Martinez grabs it from the floor and passes it over to him. When Tucker hands it to Kelly, he shoves his face half into it and pukes.

“What did she have planned?” I ask, watching him visibly shake as he continues to dry-heave.

“She told me that if I loved her, I should prove it,” he whispers into the trash can.

“And you did?” Tucker asks.

He looks up with tears in his eyes. “Yes.”

As he cries and tells us his story, I refuse to feel sorry for him. He killed two women who did not deserve to die, all because he couldn’t stand up to his wife or leave her like he should have before going out and starting another relationship. He doesn’t deserve my empathy.

Three hours later, Martinez walks him out of the room in handcuffs while a female officer places cuffs on his wife still inside the other interrogation room. Cristy Kelly might not have admitted to taking part in Anna and Grace’s murders tous, but an hour ago, while she was alone with her husband when we let him see her, she made statements that implicated her in their deaths.

Did she pull the trigger? No. But without her encouraging her husband to kill Anna and in turn Grace just because she was there, neither girl would be dead, so she is just as responsible as he is, and hopefully a jury will agree with us.

Leaving Martinez to deal with the transfer of both Kelce and Cristy to the jail, I head to my desk. Taking a seat, I pull up the number for Grace’s mother and grab the phone on my desk. After telling her we found her daughter’s killer and explaining what will happen next, I call Anna’s parents and tell them the same. And although everyone is relieved to know that the people responsible for the murder of their girls is off the street, they understand this is only the beginning of their journey toward closure.

Closing my computer for the night, I take my gun out of the drawer of my desk, shove my keys into my pocket, then head out of the building. When I get outside, I see Martinez walking toward his car, so I head across the lot to him.

“You good?” I ask, stopping a couple of feet from him, and he lifts the duffle bag he’s holding higher onto his shoulder.

“My mind is fucked up after that shit,” he mutters, jerking his chin toward the building, and I nod in understanding. A man killing two innocent women as a way of proving his loyalty to his wife is a lot to wrap your mind around. “Gonna go home and force my kids to go have dinner with me.”

“Good luck with that.”

“I might need it.” He drags in a deep breath and lets it out. “Was Grace’s mom…”

“Relieved,” I cut him off. “The same as Anna’s parents.”

“Good,” he whispers, and I nod, taking a step back. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” I turn to head for my SUV parked across the lot.

When I get home twenty minutes later, I walk through the door and find the apartment empty. Not even Dolly, who has grown on me, is around to greet me. Taking my gun to the bedroom, I lock it up, then leave the apartment and walk down the hall to Tucker’s place. I knock and get no response, so I take the elevator up a floor.

When I get to Clay’s, the door is unlocked, so I walk in and hear voices coming from the playroom. Following them, I’m greeted by Emma, Willow, and Miranda sitting at the bar but hear Clay, Tucker, and Dayton’s voices coming from deeper within the room. When Em sees me, she slides off the stool she’s sitting on, leaving behind the glass of wine she was drinking.

Her eyes scan over my face and soften as she walks toward me.

“Bad day?” she asks, wrapping her arms around me, and I bury my face in the space between her neck and shoulder.

“Better now.” I kiss her neck.

“You’re home!”

I drop my eyes to Win when she wraps her arms around us and smile. Yeah, definitely better now, and I know whatever happens in my life, as long as I have this, nothing else will matter.

epilogue

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